From Notting Hill With Love… Actually by Ali McNamara

I like a romantic comedy as much as the next person – in fact, probably more than that which is why ‘From Notting Hill With Love… Actually’ initially appealed to me, but this book was just too much for me!

The story centres on Scarlett a bride-to-be struggling with her future and escaping her world by constant daydreams relating to Rom-Com films. Now, after reading the book, I can’t say I blame her; her future husband comes across as incredibly dull and it is hard to understand how they ever got together, and her job seems almost to be entirely made up.

After arguing with everyone she knows about her constant day dreaming she heads of to house sit in Notting Hill to prove to everyone that it is normal and ‘movie-moments’ really happen.

Without giving too much away (I don’t want to stop anyone reading it if they really want to) the book is full of handy ‘coincidences’ and unbelievable sub-plots. The characters are either under-developed or just incredibly annoying. The book is also full of said ‘movie-moments’ that not only wouldn’t make sense to anyone who hasn’t seen the films, but more frustratingly they just seemed to just be crowbarred in at every possible opportunity.

The one good point I would make is that, however much Scarlett annoyed me I did want her to have a happy ending and it was certainly one that even the most rom-com hating of people couldn’t help but smile at.

Whilst I would not recommend this book, I haven’t read anything else by Ali McNamara and will not let it put me off if I come across one of her books that looks interesting.

4/10